Using an image caption in Markdown Jekyll

Question

I am hosting a Jekyll Blog on Github and write my posts with Markdown. When I am adding images, I do it the following way:

![name of the image](http://link.com/image.jpg)

This then shows the image in the text.

However, how can I tell Markdown to add a caption which is presented below or above the image?

Answer 1

There are two semantically correct solutions to this question:

1. Using a plugin
2. Creating a custom include

1. Using a plugin

I've tried a couple of plugins doing this and my favourite is jekyll-figure.

1.1. Install jekyll-figure

One way to install jekyll-figure is to add gem "jekyll-figure" to your Gemfile in your plugins group.

Then run bundle install from your terminal window.

1.2. Use jekyll-figure

Simply wrap your markdown in {% figure %} and {% endfigure %} tags.

You caption goes in the opening {% figure %} tag, and you can even style it with markdown!

Example:

{% figure caption:"Le logo de **Jekyll** et son clin d'oeil à Robert Louis Stevenson" %}
    ![Le logo de Jekyll](/assets/images/2018-08-07-jekyll-logo.png)
{% endfigure %}

1.3. Style it

Now that your images and captions are semantically correct, you can apply CSS as you wish to:

• figure (for both image and caption)
• figure img (for image only)
• figcaption (for caption only)

2. Creating a custom include

You'll need to create an image.html file in your _includes folder, and include it using Liquid in Markdown.

2.1. Create _includes/image.html

Create the image.html document in your _includes folder :

<!-- _includes/image.html -->
<figure>
    {% if include.url %}
    <a href="{{ include.url }}">
    {% endif %}
    <img
        {% if include.srcabs %}
            src="{{ include.srcabs }}"
        {% else %}
            src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/images/{{ include.src }}"
        {% endif %}
    alt="{{ include.alt }}">
    {% if include.url %}
    </a>
    {% endif %}
    {% if include.caption %}
        <figcaption>{{ include.caption }}</figcaption>
    {% endif %}
</figure>

2.2. In Markdown, include an image using Liquid

An image in /assets/images with a caption:

This is [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com)'s logo :

{% include image.html
    src="jekyll-logo.png" <!-- image filename (placed in /assets/images) -->
    alt="Jekyll's logo" <!-- alt text -->
    caption="This is Jekyll's logo, featuring Dr. Jekyll's serum!" <!-- Caption -->
%}

An (external) image using an absolute URL: (change src="" to srcabs="")

This is [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com)'s logo :

{% include image.html
    srcabs="https://jekyllrb.com/img/logo-2x.png" <!-- absolute URL to image file -->
    alt="Jekyll's logo" <!-- alt text -->
    caption="This is Jekyll's logo, featuring Dr. Jekyll's serum!" <!-- Caption -->
%}

A clickable image: (add url="" argument)

This is [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com)'s logo :

{% include image.html
    src="https://jekyllrb.com/img/logo-2x.png" <!-- absolute URL to image file -->
    url="https://jekyllrb.com" <!-- destination url -->
    alt="Jekyll's logo" <!-- alt text -->
    caption="This is Jekyll's logo, featuring Dr. Jekyll's serum!" <!-- Caption -->
%}

An image without a caption:

This is [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com)'s logo :

{% include image.html
    src="https://jekyllrb.com/img/logo-2x.png" <!-- absolute URL to image file -->
    alt="Jekyll's logo" <!-- alt text -->
%}

2.3. Style it

Now that your images and captions are semantically correct, you can apply CSS as you wish to:

• figure (for both image and caption)
• figure img (for image only)
• figcaption (for caption only)

Answer 2

Andrew's @andrew-wei answer works great. You can also chain a few together, depending on what you are trying to do. This, for example, gets you an image with alt, title and caption with a line break and bold and italics in different parts of the caption:

img + br + strong {margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 7px; font-style:italic; font-size: 12px; }
img + br + strong + em {margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 7px; font-size: 12px; font-style:italic;}

With the following <img> markdown:

![description](https://img.jpg "description")
***Image:*** *description*

Answer 3

<p align="center">
  <img alt="img-name" src="/path/image-name.png" width="300">
  <br>
    <em>caption</em>
</p>

That is the basic caption use. Not necessary to use an extra plugin.

Answer 4

I know this is an old question but I thought I'd still share my method of adding image captions. You won't be able to use the caption or figcaption tags, but this would be a simple alternative without using any plugins.

In your markdown, you can wrap your caption with the emphasis tag and put it directly underneath the image without inserting a new line like so:

![](path_to_image)
*image_caption*

This would generate the following HTML:

<p>
    <img src="path_to_image" alt>
    <em>image_caption</em>
</p>

Then in your CSS you can style it using the following selector without interfering with other em tags on the page:

img + em { }

Note that you must not have a blank line between the image and the caption because that would instead generate:

<p>
    <img src="path_to_image" alt>
</p>
<p>
    <em>image_caption</em>
</p>

You can also use whatever tag you want other than em. Just make sure there is a tag, otherwise you won't be able to style it.